John W. Moyle is a writer and editor with a background in journalism. In addition to nature writing, his work focuses on the relationship between communication and belief.
The eeriness of the non-human encounter is transformed into evil by the realisation that this presence means to be mean. It is the recognition of a mind that enjoys cruelty.
It was not a misunderstanding of the natural world and its hazards, but an understanding of the public: an understanding that fear can outweigh data, and that a token act of protection would be enough.
Perversely, distrust of these institutions means that when people’s intuitions appear to be rejected, or the knowledge they value undermined, it becomes a type of validation: if they say it’s false, it must be true!
